Fishing Reports

Archive For The “Smallmouth Bass” Category

The French Broad River in Asheville, NC has been fishing really well when the river has had some clarity. Smallmouth bass and nice rock bass have been chewing artificial lures all day long. The topwater bite has been good in the morning and evening as well. Recent trips have netted over 50 bass with a…

Unpredictable water levels and clarity have sent me over to a more predicable river, the Tuckasegee! The daily release schedule helps regulate the Tuck’s water and make for really good morning smallmouth fishing. On a recent trip we were on the water by sun break catching smallies on the first cast. Topwater action was explosive…

Had a really fun day on the water with a couple on vacation from Charleston, SC. We caught bass and tons of bluegill using all types of methods and lures, including on the fly. The highlights of the trip were an early morning smallmouth and largemouth DOUBLE using topwater baits! Also, it’s always a special…

Smallmouth Bass have been active in the local rivers, when the water has clarity. Topwater and soft plastics have been taking fish all day. If stained or muddy water… we have had to use darker baits or some noise/flash to trigger strikes. Fishing in the morning or evening has been great for topwater action…

Bass have moved into summer feeding patterns, topwater action early and late… sometimes longer if overcast. Then moving into more of a finesse plastic patterns on most sunny days and afternoons. Recent trips have produced good numbers with a few bigger 17-18in smallmouth bass thrown in. One recent client boated a trophy smallmouth bass within…

Took two amazing young men out fishing on a great local float that has a wide diversity of species to target. And, boy did they catch them (76 total… you bet these boys kept count!). They picked up river fishing quick and put numerous bream, rockbass, and smallies in the boat. We had some excitement…

We started out fishing for Musky on a weekend in February. However, it wasn’t my day for musky… We were coming up on the rocky section of the river which is better for smallmouth. So we pulled off to a river campsite, made a campfire, and switched over our gear. Back on the water, two…

Looked at the weather and couldn’t resist dropping the boat in on a local rocky-river flow. This winter has been super mild except for one cold snowy week. Water temps were pushing lower 50’s and the bass had turned on pre-spawn feeding at this point! It was unreal to see mid-winter bass rocket out of…

Had a good start to the Delayed Harvest trout waters opening in October. Took two of my favorite clients out for the day floating the DH section of the Tuckasegee River. We started with Anna setting the hook into a nice rainbow trout that measured over 15inches!! The trout fishing slacked off some during the…

Lately, with the rivers low and clear I have switched gears on trips by myself or with Lynae to 100% fly-fishing. I’ve personally needed to dive back into that world a little and have had a lot of fun targeting smallies plus wild trout this summer on the fly. I’d been pumped about this past…

With the mid to late summer pattern being a chance of scattered to isolated showers every afternoon, bass fishing really depends on river level and water clarity. This is not to say that we are not fishing muddy or stained water and having success. Outings on both the French Broad and Pigeon rivers have produced…

It was a wild, tough, and incredible day of fishing on the river; I’d say the best day of this season so far. This past Tuesday, I had two gentlemen on my boat bass fishing a local river, one being a Navy veteran. The river levels have been really low all of June and into…

Took two clients for a half-day float trip in Asheville even with the river color being slightly stained. They ended up catching a bunch of smallies, I think we lost count around 50 fish. The fish just needed to see the lure, so bright flashy or dark colors worked the best. Some fish were caught…

I’ve been floating and bass fishing a few new sections of local flows close to home. I have also been experimenting with some new soft plastics made by 412baitco. Smallmouth bass fishing is really on fire in WNC and the topwater bite has turned ON! I mostly have been fishing the afternoon hours from 4ish till dark. Most bass…

I was on the river twice this week targeting smallmouth. Monday I took a client out on the French Broad River north of Asheville. The bite turned on like a light switch around 10:30am and was really hot for a couple hours. During that time we boated about 20+ fish in the 10-15in. range. Then…